Kolavia Flight 348

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Tupolev Tu-154B-2, registration RA-85588, msn 83A/588. The aircraft first flew in 1983. It entered service with Aeroflot as CCCP-85588 and was re-registered RA-85588 in June 1993. It then served with Mavial Magadan Airlines between October 1994 and August 1999, when it began service with Vladivostok Air. Kogalymavia acquired the aircraft in April 2007.

Accident

Flight 348 was carrying eight crew, 116 passengers and 10 off-duty employees of Kogalymavia. As the aircraft was taxiing for take-off from Surgut International Airport, a fire developed in one of the engines and an emergency evacuation was ordered. It was initially reported that the aircraft had made an emergency landing following an engine flame-out on take-off. The accident occurred at 13:12 local time (08:12 UTC). Three people were killed, and 43 people were injured, from smoke inhalation or burns. The aircraft was operating a domestic scheduled flight from Surgut to Moscow. The aircraft was burnt out by the fire, which was extinguished by 13:45 local time. Members of the 1990s Russian pop group Na Na were on board the plane at the time. A statement by the Russia's Ministry of Health and Social Development gave figures of 117 passengers and 18 crew.

Aftermath

Following the accident, Russia's Federal Transport Oversight Agency advised airlines that they should stop using the Tu-154B until the accident had been investigated. This would affect 14 aircraft, all other Tu-154s in service are Tu-154Ms. Kogalymavia pledged to pay compensation of руб 20,000 to those passengers involved in the accident. The Russian insurance company Sogaz stated that those injured in the accident would receive between руб 20,000 and руб 2,000,000 compensation. The families of those killed would receive руб 2,000,000 compensation. Authorities in the Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra had allocated руб 10,000,000 to assist the families of those injured in the accident. It was reported on 6 January that all three bodies had been recovered from the wreckage.

Investigation

Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) opened an investigation into the accident. A separate criminal investigation was opened to investigate allegations of breaching transport and fire safety rules. The Flight Data Recorder and Cockpit Voice Recorder were recovered from the wreckage of the aircraft. Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations stated that the initial investigations pointed towards an electrical short circuit being the cause of the fire, which started in the central area of the fuselage, ahead of the rear-mounted engines. The fire started between frames 65 and 68. In a statement issued on 4 January, the MAK ruled out the engines or auxiliary power unit as the cause of the fire.

On 28 September 2011 the MAK released their final report in Russian stating that the probable cause of the accident was "The outbreak of a fire in the right generator panel located between frames 62 and 64 in the cabin The cause of the fire was an electrical arc produced by electrical currents exceeding 10 to 20 times the nominal loads when two generators not synchronised with each other were brought online but got connected together instead of being connected to parallel busses."